The present disclosure relates to computing systems, and, in particular, to management of applications, application servers, and user equipment.
Users download a myriad of different types of application programs (also commonly referred to as “mobile apps”) to many types of user equipment having widely varying software and hardware characteristics. For example, users can select from among several million applications available on application stores for downloading to cellular telephones (e.g., “smart phones”), tablet computers, laptop computers, and other types of user equipment for processing. The volume of applications being downloaded is growing exponentially with the proliferation of capable user equipment, which include over a billion Apple IOS and Android phones used throughout the world.
Application stores allow users to review applications by providing textual opinions and numeric ratings. Ratings define the polarity (favorable, unfavorable, neutral) and strength of polarity (5 of 5 being strongly favorable or positive rating, for example, 4 of 5 being weakly unfavorable, 3 of 5 being neutral, 1 being strongly unfavorable or negative rating, for example) of opinions and may be represented by numerically or by a number of selected symbols (e.g., stars).
Mobile application reviews have a significant impact on the number of application downloads and associated monetization opportunities for application owners. Application owners are also provided valuable feedback through the reviews that can be used to improve existing features and identify desirable new features. In view of some applications have thousands or millions of users, the associated high volume and diversity of feedback from reviewers oftentimes is an overwhelming burden on application owners and application users to sift through to attempt to obtain useful insight about applications.